And Colorful Buenos Aires, Argentina

3 January 2020

This is the second post today, so if you haven't read the post about Vancouver, BC, go back one post for that one.

On Christmas Day, we flew to Buenos Aires, arriving on the 26th.  Warm and sunny and gorgeous day, we're so happy to be here and travelling again.   

It's wonderful to be back in BA, we both really enjoyed this city the last time we were here in 2016.  I won't go into the history of the city and country again, but if you're interested, here's the link to our first blog from Argentina:  rollingluggagers.blogspot.com/2016/02/arriving-in-buenos-aires.html

One of the things I love about this city is the architecture.  The city was flourishing in the late 1800s through to the early 1900s, so many of the buildings are in the Neoclassical or Art Nouveau styles, huge buildings with columns, stone or concrete embellishments, turrets and towers, ornate wrought iron balconies, carved wood doors, and brass flourishes.  Some of the buildings are almost overdone, but most are just wonderful examples of this rich period of art and architecture.  (I'd love to see the interior of all the buildings!)

We've had a few rainy days, but I put on waterproof shoes and grabbed the camera, and went out to photograph some buildings in the rain.  Grey skies and wet cement sometimes make the architecture more interesting, and the whole picture more atmospheric.  

 

The money is fascinating, I always enjoy looking at the currency of other countries.  Argentinian pesos are colorful, and while one side has various national patriots and heroes and politicians, the other side seems to feature animals of the region!  The 500 peso bill has my friend the jaguar, surrounded by the green jungle and some tropical flowers.  The 20 peso bill has the guanaco, a member of the camelid family living in the pampas region of Pategonia.  They look more like llamas than camels, but larger and a lovely rich medium brown, with white bellies and darker edges.  Very cute animals.

We had an exciting end to 2019 - we woke up early on 31 December (Old Year's Day in the Virgin Islands), not because we wanted to wake up but because there was loud blaring booming music practically outside our window!  The music went on and on, with the person occasionally speaking through the mic, so we knew this was live music.  So I finally got up and looked out the window, and grabbed my camera - it was a gathering for some kind of a race!  The large main street, Avenida 9 de Julio, was all blocked off and thousands of people were gathering in the street!!!

Of course, I had to look online to get more information, because my Spanish is limited and I didn't even know how to ask what was happening.  This was the 10th annual San Silvestre race, an 8K race (just under 5 miles).  According to the article I read, there were 12,000 runners that day - I can believe it!!!  I stood at our window taking photos, and the five-lane-wide road was jam-packed with race participants for at least 3 or 4 blocks!!!
 
People walked around with friends or running groups and warmed up, then got into position.  A few people carried a huge Argentinian flag on poles over the heads of the crowd - I'll put those photos at the end, in sequence, so you can see how long it took for this flag to move over those 12,000 people!!!  

And the music continued on and on!

As soon as the flag was at the end, the actual race began. It took forever for all of the runners to actually start moving apart - and I'm guessing the serious runners were at the front of the line, while those who were doing this as a fun run were at the back.

Most of the runners were wearing San Silvestre tank tops in blue, green, or orange, but others were in odd costumes, including vari-colored tutus, wigs, Santa hats, weird hats, and even a fire fighter (bomboñero).

My favorite, though, was the person wearing what appeared to be a plywood and fabric costume, so that he looked like the Obelisk, or Obelisco, which is just about at the beginning end of the race course!!  He was so funny because he couldn't really run, just sort of lumbered along the course with a friend carrying a BA sign!

I have no idea how quickly the first person ran, but he showed up not long after the last contingent began.  Maybe 15 minutes?  People were coming in for the next hour or so, with the music continuing on and on.  We watched the end of the race while at breakfast.

It really was pretty exciting!

And of course, because it was New Year's Eve, the excitement continued.  We received mixed reports about the fireworks for that night, and weren't sure where to head to see that.  Also, many cafés and restaurants were closed early for the holiday, so we wandered around a while before finding a place to eat.  We met two nice young men who sent us to a pizza place, and then we later ran into them at the same spot - so we have two new friends in BA.  They headed off to Palermo for fireworks, but we thought we'd try to see the Puerto Madero fireworks from our hotel.

Of course, we couldn't see those fireworks.  However, just up the street at the Obelisk was a great little fireworks display - not a huge professional extravaganza, but a small neighborhood display of fireworks, with my favorites, the ones that go off and turn into shimmering little multiple fireworks of gold.  

We also saw firework displays off in the distance in all directions, so we actually had more fun sitting in our room in the dark and watching everything at once.  It really was a great night!

As I said, we're having fun in BA.  The National Academy of Tango is closed for the holiday, and I expect they won't open until after 6 January, Three Kings Day.  Until then, we'll just enjoy time in the city.  We're looking into an open air bus tour, maybe a walking tour, and possibly a visit to San Telmo on Sunday to watch the tangoing couples.

A few more photos, and then the Argentinian flag at the race!